By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – The borough’s historic neighborhoods are loaded with charm.
However, a recent letter from Red Bank’s Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) notifying property owners about their home’s designation and subsequent obligations has left many irked.
Residents are concerned that the commission’s actions – including a recent proposal to nominate Irving Place for a historic district designation – infringe upon their privacy, privilege, and pockets all at once.
The HPC has always existed but was reinstated and empowered this year. In the last two months, it has set forth two courses of action – the notification letter with new guidelines and the Irving Place historic designation – raising questions from affected homeowners.
According to the notification letter dated July 17, “Property owners or occupants within a historic district must apply to the Commission for review of changes to the appearance of a property. This includes renovations, new construction, demolition, fences, signage, etc.” This means notified residents cannot make any exterior changes to their properties without an HPC review and approval. Once the commission reviews an application, it may recommend it to the borough’s planning board for final approval or denial.
Interior changes to a building and routine maintenance do not require an HPC review process.
The letter was signed by Shawna Ebanks, HPC board secretary and director of community development. (Ebanks did not respond to requests for an interview by press time.) The requirements laid out in the letter apply to all property owners on the designated historic Washington and Broad streets that fall within the boundaries of the borough’s regulated “Design District Overlay.”
While the buildings on these properties may or may not be of historic value, the owners will have to follow HPC guidelines if the property falls within the borders of the designated historic district. The borough’s Master Plan classifies all these properties, including residential, commercial, schools, churches and community buildings, into two types, “contributing” or “non-contributing” to the historic character.
Regardless of their type or function, all notified properties need to go through HPC review for exterior permits, but “there are different guidelines” for updates to non-contributing properties in the historic districts, explained Red Bank Borough Council member Kristina Bonatakis, HPC’s council liaison and member of the planning board. The non-contributing properties will “never be required to retroactively make their home fit historic criteria,” she said, reiterating that interior space changes “are not within HPC purview.”
Bonatakis said the recent notices were an effort to “clean up and make sure we were starting from a solid footing” regarding the town’s historic inventory. “The current commission is tasked with reviewing the current inventory and making sure residents are informed.”
The designations date back to Red Bank’s 2009 Master Plan, which outlined criteria for historic properties, such as architectural significance or association with important events or figures. A formal designation process involves the HPC, planning board and governing body.
Bonatakis said the notices primarily went to owners of individual historic properties, rather than those in established historic districts like Broad Street, where residents tend to be more aware of the designation.
While no new historic properties have been added recently, the commission plans to develop unique design guidelines for Red Bank to provide homeowners guidance on maintenance and modifications.
“We’re preserving the exterior of the home. It’s not your landscaping and it’s not your interior. It’s really just the exterior, the facade is what’s most important,” Bonatakis explained.
The commission is also exploring potential zoning incentives for historic homeowners, though no such benefits currently exist. With rapid redevelopment projects underway in the borough, Bonatakis said balancing preservation and development is a priority for the HPC.
“So far, we really haven’t seen a standoff between preservation and development,” Bonatakis said. “The HPC gives guidance to ensure any new development is appropriate and adds to the character of the town.”
Residents’ Concern
While most residents were aware of their historic designation, some weren’t, and many are now concerned about the restrictions brought on by a historic designation.
Perry Rehm, a longtime resident of Red Bank who has lived in her home for years, was unaware of its historic designation until she received the HPC’s letter. According to the list of historic properties in the Red Bank Historic Inventory published on the borough’s website, Rehm’s house and several others were approved as historic in 2006 but the document does not detail how these properties got on the list and who approved them.
“I don’t know where their education came from. I don’t know how they got the power to do this to people’s homes,” Rehm said, questioning the commission’s criteria for determining which homes qualify as historic and noting that her house was part of a former estate, with the main house no longer standing. “I don’t know the exact age of my house. I know the deed says 1930, so that doesn’t even make it 100 years.”
“I really don’t like people telling me what I have to do to my home. They don’t live in it. They don’t pay the taxes, and they’re not assessing it,” Rehm argued.
She plans to address the issue legally and gather support from other affected homeowners in the community. She hopes to convince the commission to adopt a more advisory role, providing suggestions rather than enforcing strict guidelines.
“I would like them to be advisory only,” Rehm said, noting a similar action in Fair Haven several years ago was reversed after public outcry. “If somebody has questions on how to make their home look historically accurate, they could advise them or make suggestions, but not hold them to doing something a certain way.”
HPC’s restrictions on exteriors to keep the properties historically accurate have “essentially devalued my home,” Rehm complained.
Complying with historic architectural guidelines can cost an “exorbitant extra amount of money,” she said. “Let’s say I want to put in new gutters and I just want to get regular gutters and they say, ‘No, you had copper gutters, you need to put copper gutters up.’ So, I go from $1,200 to $80,000, perhaps.” (Generally, copper gutters cost two to four times as much as steel, aluminum or vinyl gutters.)
“Who are they to tell me that how I have to renovate my home when they just appeared out of nowhere.”
Another resident had similar concerns. Carol Hardin’s house is over 100 years old. It was the first house built at the corner of Hilltop Terrace and Prospect Avenue, a “gatekeeper’s cottage,” Hardin recalled. When she bought her historic home over 30 years ago, there were “no restrictions,” she said, and ever since, she has invested a significant amount of money to maintain its historic character, including a “$60,000 roof replacement.” Unlike other towns that offer tax rebates to help historic homeowners, “that has never happened in Red Bank. Never,” she said.
As a retiree, Hardin said she is concerned. “I wouldn’t be happy if I needed to go to the planning and zoning board every time I needed to make an improvement.”
The HPC and Irving Place
The HPC is also considering nominating Irving Place for a historic district designation. According to a notice posted on the borough’s website, around 22 properties are included in the designation. The Irving Place Historic Designation Report linked to the notice cites eight criteria per the borough’s planning and development regulations that qualify Irving Place for the historic designation. The criteria range from heritage or cultural characteristics to associations of the area with historic events or persons or a historical period.
The Irving Place Designation Report also clarifies that the New Jersey Municipal Land Use Law enables the borough of Red Bank to “establish and empower” an HPC to protect historic districts and sites and enforce the regulations established within the borough.
The report specifies that the HPC’s purpose is to “implement the Historic Preservation Element of the 2023 Master Plan, to provide guidance to property owners in achieving the preservation of historic resources.”
The HPC was created several years ago but had little power. That changed in January when the Red Bank Planning Board amended the 2023 Master Plan to add the 2009 Historic Preservation Element. On Feb. 8, the governing body adopted Ordinance No. 2024-03, which spelled out the duties, responsibilities and the powers granted to the HPC. According to the ordinance, the HPC has the power to regulate the historic districts with notices and permits that affect the exterior facades of properties.
In its letter, the HPC encouraged residents to discuss their property’s designation at the meetings hosted every third Wednesday of the month in the borough hall. The HPC reviews applications monthly; requests for demolition are heard on a “case-by-case basis” and the “merit of each request” is considered.
Bonatakis said the HPC will discuss the historic designation of properties on Irving Place at its next meeting Sept. 18, inviting public input on the matter.
The article originally appeared in the September 12 – September 18, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
